This is why having a well-known online presence is important.
...but, OTOH, it worked out well for ESR...
The mileage that Zed Shaw has received on a simple well-designed Python SMTP library is absolutely astounding and totally disproportionate to the complexity, novelty, and general market need for the library. His only other notable contribution is a simple, feature-constrained single-purpose micro web server that uses a scaling-limited thread-per-request architecture.
[Edit: This comment doesn't really make much sense now, since the parent updated his comment to note that Zed ALSO wrote mongrel. I'd delete this comment except for reply attached to it.]
[Edit] Why is the reply nonsense? The point is fairly clear -- there are far more established, widely used, complex and important projects that do not have such vitriolic personalities attached. Zed Shaw's known for his blog posts, not because of any proportionally notable contribution to the open source community.
(The original unmodified comment referred to this reply as "nonsense").
Let's say he didn't post or publish anything, would you say he'd be better off? I'm positive he won't.
I'm sure he'll find something worthwhile, tho, because of his presence. So overall, it will help him.
If he wants a management position, not so much, IMO.
What qualities does he bring that would make him a good leader? It's his way or the highway, he's always right, everybody else are idiots, has a taste for drama...
Yep, just what any struggling organization needs. Dissent is fine, what Zed brings - just in a blog - would suck to work with.
I think he's a good programmer and self-promoter, but nothing of his that I've read would lead me to put him in charge of something. In a few years, when he's matured some, maybe.
If you have the skills (he does), finding a job should not be too difficult. No need to blog about it.